The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) celebrated on 5 November, 2016 the opening of the Academy for Bright Future Young Engineers, where engineering students at HKUST will be given the opportunities to mentor and engage secondary school students in various engineering workshops, to spark their interests in technology and instill in them an engineering frame of mind.

The academy, launched under the School of Engineering (SENG), is made possible by virtue of a generous donation from Prof Roy Chung, Founder and Chairman of Bright Future Charitable Foundation and Co-founder and Non-executive Director of Techtronic Industries Company Limited, who officiated the opening ceremony with Secretary for Education of the HKSAR Government Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim; HKUST’s Council Chairman the Honorable Andrew Liao Cheung-sing; Council Vice-Chairman Prof John Chai Yat-chiu; President Prof Tony F Chan and other honorable guests. After the ceremony, Director of the Academy for Bright Future Young Engineers Prof Tsui Chi-ying and Associate Director Prof Ben Chan, led them to visit SENG’s Engineering Commons, a student-centered space that promote total learning experience, and the Undergraduate Student-initiated Experiential Learning (USEL) Laboratory, a place where students formulate ideas and work on their own projects.

President Chan expressed his gratitude to Prof Chung’s generosity. “Engineering is one of the foremost driving forces that transforms innovative ideas into inventions which improve our lives,’ he said. “I have known Roy for years, as a self-made industrialist, he is, no doubt, one of the best demonstrators of Hong Kong’s “Lion Rock Spirit”, and that is in perfect concordance with HKUST’s “can-do” spirit. I would like to express my sincere thanks to his ardent support to the founding of this academy, which offers our future engineers the opportunities to begin their creative journey at a young age.”

“Today I am pleased to witness this Lion Rock Spirit materialized and turns into a legacy for the Bright Future Spirit,” said Prof Chung. “I truly wish all students of the Academy through working hard with their learning will enjoy a very bright future.”

After the ceremony, Prof Woo Kam-tim, Associate Director of the academy staged a seminar for a group of teachers on how to promote STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in secondary schools. Meanwhile, over 80 high school students participated in a number of HKUST student-led workshops which covers the building of fuel cell electric vehicles, scratch programming, building electronic piano as well as 3D printing and modeling.

The academy seeks to develop secondary school students’ innovation, spark their enthusiasm in engineering and build a positive public perception of engineering through these hands-on and interactive projects. Other programs in the pipeline include summer and winter camps, laboratory visits, seminars, robotic competitions, training, credit-bearing courses and workshops.